Photo/Illutration Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki speaks with reporters in Naha on Oct. 11. (Satsuki Tanahashi)

NAHA--Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki vowed to continue fighting the central government in court over a proposed design change to a contentious land reclamation project for a U.S. military base in his prefecture, but his prospects don’t look very good.

The squabble over the design change is part of a much broader issue: Widespread anger, voiced for decades, among Okinawan islanders over the massive U.S. military presence in the prefecture and Tokyo’s refusal to budge on this latest project, long viewed as a white elephant in the making.

On Oct. 5, the land ministry submitted a lawsuit at the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court requesting an administrative subrogation order that would allow the central government to take over the approval process from the Okinawa prefectural government.

This was because Tamaki missed an Oct. 4 government-set deadline to approve a design change application from the Defense Ministry regarding work that will eventually lead to the relocation within the prefecture of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to the coastal Henoko district in Nago.

“Despite the excessive burden (on Okinawa) from U.S. military bases, opposition to the building of a military base has been clearly expressed by the Okinawa people,” Tamaki told reporters Oct. 11. “I will state in court the public interest of local residents and also argue that the central and local governments are on equal standing.”

Oral arguments in the latest lawsuit are set for Oct. 30 and Tamaki plans to appear in court to state for the record that he will not approve the design change application.

In theory, Okinawa should have the final say in the matter. But the government has a mechanism in place that can override any objections Tamaki cares to raise.

Tamaki won the gubernatorial elections of 2018 and 2022 on the strength of his opposition to the Henoko relocation as well as the suffocating U.S. military presence in Okinawa in general. The prefecture hosts around 70 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan.

A full 70 percent of islanders opposed the relocation project in a prefectural referendum held in 2019.

In its lawsuit, the central government stated that it was “illegal and highly unusual” for the head of the prefectural administrative branch to not approve such an application. The central government asked the Naha branch to close the case on Oct. 30 and issue a swift ruling.

A ruling is expected to be made by year-end and the Okinawa prefectural government will likely lose.

In that event, the high court would instruct the central government to approve the design change application on behalf of the prefectural government.

(This article was written by Taro Ono and Daisuke Yajima.)

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